China reaffirmed its support for Africa by promising 1, 000 million additional doses of Covid vaccines – 19 and the cancellation of intergovernmental loan debt to the poorest countries due at the end of 2021.
The announcements of this “pragmatic” cooperation were made by the president Chinese, Xi Jinping, in the opening speech of the eighth ministerial conference of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which is being held in Dakar.
“To contribute to the achievement of the goal set by the African Union to vaccinate the 60% of the African population against Covid – 19 for 2022 , here I am announcing that China will provide Africa 1, 000 million doses of vaccine additional s ”, Xi pointed out online.
The continent is one of the lags behind in the world in vaccination against coronavirus, since less than 7% of its population, about 1, 300 million inhabitants , has received a complete inoculation schedule.
In addition, “ China will cancel the outstanding debts related to with intergovernmental interest-free loans due at the end of 2021 of the least developed countries in Africa “, Xi added, without providing more details.
In the next three years, he assured, China will encourage its companies to invest at least 000, 000 millions of dollars in Africa and will establish a China-Africa platform to promote private investment .
The Chinese president requested that cooperation between the Asian country and the African continent remains strong, especially now in the joint fight against Covid – 19.
Macky Sall, President of Senegal, also participated in the inauguration of the eighth ministerial conference of the FOCAC, who highlighted the ties of “friendship, solidarity, trust and respect ”between China and Africa.
#China will deliver another billion doses of vaccines # COVID 19 to # Africa and will encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $ 10 billion on the mainland over the next three years, President Xi Jinping said on Monday. https://t.co/WZ7P0y2iMF
– Enorable. com (@Enorablecom) November 28, 2021
Solidarity with South Africa
The presidents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi; Egypt, Abdel Fattah al Sisi; Comoros, Azali Assoumani; and South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa; as well as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres and the President of the African Union (AU) Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat.
At a time when South Africa sees how many countries have reacted with travel restrictions to their announcement of the detection of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, Ramaphosa declared that the pandemic “has strengthened South-South cooperation.”
In this sense, Mahamat pointed out that South Africa has been “unjustly stigmatized”, while Sall promised that Africa will not close its borders to this country in the south of the continent.
For his part, Guterres defined the FOCAC in his speech as an “excellent” example of global solidarity and pointed out that the “absolute” priority now is to put an end to the Covid crisis. 19 .
“I encourage partnerships to make a difference in the provision of vaccines to the millions of Africans and African women who continue to be deprived of this elementary and sanitary protection ”, added the UN Secretary.
Apart from the pandemic, Xi advocated a greater increase in trade and investment, stressing that development should be “ecological” .
In In this sense, he defended the promotion of the export of African agricultural products to China, the expansion of items exempt from customs duties and a financing program to encourage Chinese private companies to invest in Africa.
Xi also referred to digital innovation, industrialization projects, training, employment, environmental protection and even the promotion of African countries as a tourist destination for Chinese nationals who They travel in a group.
Pragmatic cooperation
China has been Africa’s leading trading partner for thirteen years and, according to the past o Sunday in Dakar, China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, during the first ten months of 2021 the volume of Sino-African financial exchanges exceeded the 207,000 millions of dollars.
The Asian giant insists that cooperation with Africa is pragmatic, with visible results such as construction by Chinese companies of more than 10. 000 kilometers of railway, near 100, 000 kilometers of roads, 1, 000 bridges or 100 ports on the mainland, said Wang.
The eighth ministerial conference of the FOCAC seeks, as its motto indicates, “to deepen the Sino-African partnership and promote sustainable development to build a shared China-Africa community of the future in the new era ”, based on principles of solidarity and mutual benefit among countries of the global south.
In this sense, Xi did not miss the opportunity to remember the 65 years of “unshakable brotherhood in the fight against imperialism and colonialism” of China and Africa .
Senegal is the fourth African country (after Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa) to host a ministerial conference of the FOCAC since this dialogue mechanism began in year 2, 000 in Beijing.
Since its creation, the FOCAC has grown in importance to become a priority event that welcomes high-level delegations from all African countries, with the exception of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), which maintains ties with Taiwan and not with China.
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